The Development of Coping ─ Stress, Neurophysiology, Social Relationships, and Resilience During Childhood and Adolescence

This book traces the development of coping from birth to emerging adulthood by building a conceptual and empirical bridge between coping and the development of regulation and resilience. It offers a comprehensive overview of the challenges facing the developmental study of coping, including the history of the concept, critiques of current coping theories and research, and reviews of age differences and changes in coping during childhood and adolescence. It integrates multiple strands of cutting-edge theory and research, including work on the development of stress neurophysiology, attachment, emotion regulation, and executive functions.

In addition, chapters track how coping develops, starting from birth and following its progress across multiple qualitative shifts during childhood and adolescence. The book identifies factors that shape the development of coping, focusing on the effects of underlying neurobiological changes, social relationships, and stressful experiences. Qualitative shifts are emphasized and explanatory factors highlight multiple entry points for the diagnosis of problems and implementation of remedial and preventive interventions.

Topics featured in this text include:

The Development of Coping is a must-have resource for researchers, professors, and graduate students as well as clinicians and related professionals in developmental, clinical child, and school psychology, public health, counseling, personality and social psychology, and neurophysiological psychology as well as prevention and intervention science.

Ellen A. Skinner, Ph.D., is a leading expert on the development of children’s motivation, coping, and academic identity in school. She is a Professor in the Psychology Department at Portland State University, in Portland Oregon. As part of Psychology’s concentration in Developmental Science and Education, her research explores ways to promote students’ constructive coping, ongoing classroom engagement (marked by hard work, interest, and enthusiasm), and perseverance in the face of obstacles and setbacks. She is especially focused on two ingredients that shape motivational resilience: (1) close relationships with teachers, parents, and peers, and (2) academic work that is authentic and intrinsically motivating.?

Melanie J. Zimmer-Gembeck, Ph.D., is a leading expert on social relationships, stress and coping, and autonomy and identity during adolescence. She is a Professor in the School of Applied Psychology and Menzies Health Institute of Queensland, at Griffith University in Queensland, Australia. She also directs The Family Interaction Program, a center that develops, pilots, evaluates and disseminates innovative programs for children, adolescents, and families, focusing especially on building family supports for children aged 1 to 12. Her broad range of research interests and funded projects include parent-infant attachment, stress and other important family issues, adolescent development as associated with couple (dating), peer and family relationships, adolescent sexual behavior and sexuality, the development of emotional, cognitive and behavioral regulation, interpersonal rejection and sensitivity to rejection, and appearance-related concerns.